Description from
Flora of China
Aspidium molle Swartz var. latipinnum Bentham, Fl. Hongk. 455. 1861; A. latipinnum (Bentham) Hance; Christella latipinna (Bentham) H. Léveillé; Cyclosorus decipiens Ching; C. grossodentatus Ching ex K. H. Shing; C. nanpingensis Ching; C. oblanceolatus K. H. Shing & C. F. Zhang; C. papilionaceus K. H. Shing & C. F. Zhang; C. paralatipinnus Ching ex K. H. Shing; Dryopteris latipinna (Bentham) Kuntze; D. parasitica (Linnaeus) Kuntze var. latipinna (Bentham) C. Christensen; Nephrodium latipinnum (Bentham) Hooker ex Baker; Thelypteris latipinna (Bentham) K. Iwatsuki.
Plants (15-)20-40(-60) cm tall. Rhizomes shortly creeping, dark brown, apices and stipe bases with sparse brown linear-lanceolate scales. Fronds approximate; stipes 5-20 cm; laminae 10-30 × 5-15 cm, bases narrowed, apices caudate with a large and deeper lobed apical pinna; lateral pinnae 4-10 pairs, proximal 1-4 pairs shortened with lowest pair ca. 1 × 0.5 cm, triangular-auriculate; middle pinnae lanceolate or oblanceolate, 3-10 × 1.5-2 cm, bases rounded-truncate, lobed 1/4-1/3 toward costae, sometimes subentire, apices acuminate or acute; segments 10-20 pairs, 1-3 × ca. 3 mm, entire, obtuse at apices; veinlets 5 or 6 pairs, proximal pair anastomosing, next 0.5-1 pair running to sinus membrane, excurrent veinlet usually interrupted. Laminae herbaceous, yellowish green when dried, shortly hairy along costae and veins adaxially, abaxial surface with very minute hairs and several reddish orange glands along veins, also with capitate glandular hairs throughout. Sori orbicular, medial, proximal pair usually confluent; indusia shortly hairy. Sporangia bearing reddish orange glands on stalks. Spores brown, large, irregularly small tuberculate and echinate.
According to the authors study, Cyclosorus latipinnus is a species of variable size, not always a small plant as described in FRPS (4(1): 227. 1999), so many names are treated as synonyms here. Characters such as venation, capitate glandular hairs, and spore ornamentation are similar.
Holttum (Kew Bull. 31: 324. 1976; Fl. Males., Ser. 2, 1. 1982) treated both Cyclosorus latipinnus and C. jaculosus as synonyms of Christella subpubescens (Blume) Holttum (Aspidium subpubescens Blume; Cyclosorus subpubescens (Blume) Ching; Thelypteris subpubescens (Blume) K. Iwatsuki), which makes C. subpubescens a complex and confused species. We found that C. jaculosus and C. latipinnus are two distinct species, so the application of the name C. subpubescens is questionable. Pending detailed studies of the type, we maintain the use of the name C. latipinnus.
Wet or semi-open forest margins, beside streams; near sea level to 1300 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, N and S Taiwan, S Yunnan, S Zhejiang [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, Pacific islands (Polynesia)].
